Ignaz Buerge of the Swiss Federal Research Station, Agroscope, and his colleagues first came across acesulfame as a potential wastewa-ter tracer in 2008, while searching for a compound that would help pinpoint a leak from a wastewater treatment plant in Adliswil, Switzerland. During routine plant maintenance, sewage was inadvertently released into already-purified drinking water, and for two days residents had to boil their tap water. While investigating water samples from the incident, "we basically stumbled over" artificial sugars as a tracer, says coauthor Thomas Poiger of Agroscope.rnThe researchers report their findings on four manufactured sweeteners in ES&T (DOl 10.1021/ es900126x). They argue that acesulfame, which is persistent in surface and groundwater, has the right characteristics to be used as a tracer for human wastewater. The finding will be useful for many scientists, the researchers note. "This paper appears to solve (or partially solve) one of the most vexing problems that several research communities have been [attempting to solve for] several years," commented Bruce Brownawell of the State University of New York Stony Brook, in an email.
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